Quixotically rejecting both David Cameron and the DUP, Lady Sylvia Hermon has told the annual dinner of her local SDLP, such as it is in North Down, that she intends to stand as an Independent.
Who else is going to contest electorally Northern Ireland's strangest seat, once occupied by Sir Jim Kilfedder, and then by Bob McCartney? Only one of those is dead. And he won't be the only colourful character, we trust.
Or are we about to see, there of all places, Northern Ireland's first ever normal parliamentary election, between a New Labour incumbent, a Tory who would have expected the seat as of right any time before 1997, and a strong local Alliance Party linked to the Lib Dems?
When she was selected in 2001 she beat Eric Culbertson, to whom you have referred both here and on Slugger. He is not local but if it's colour you want, then they don't come any more colourful than just about the most conservative evangelical still actively ministering in the C of I, and just about as outspoken an anti-Agreement man as you could imagine, who is also a dedicated activist on behalf of the Irish language.
ReplyDeleteCulbertson's Presbyetrian ally Steven Dickinson has signed up to the TUV. The TUV has had trouble over the language and the mocking of it on its Facebook site. Running Culbertson would put that to bed once and for all. Neither the SDLP nor the Sinn Fein candidate if there is one would speak it half as well as him.
Under the circumstances, I don't think that "LOL" would be quite appropriate.
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